1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to, for example, a data relay processing method for determining allocations or the like of transmission bands in networks, a data relay processing unit and a program recording medium.
The present invention also relates to an information drop method and an information drop unit for selecting important information to be transmitted.
2. Related Art of the Invention
In the Internet a protocol (for example a protocol called RSVP) for making a band reservation has been proposed conventionally, but route control according to QoS (transmission quality) hasn""t been considered. That is to say in the present Internet transmission quality such as transmission bands, delays and jitters are reserved in advance and transmission resources are reserved on a predetermined transmission route.
Therefore, in the case that there are extra transmission bands of a network, the resources of the whole network cannot be uses effectively with some cases where unused routes exist. To solve this problem a system where QoS routing (route control) is available has been proposed conventionally.
For example, xe2x80x9cQoS routing unitxe2x80x9d (Japanese patent application H7(1995)-315558) by Atsushi Iwata can be cited. According to the conventional system, transmission bands, delays, jitters or the like are defined as QoS and a routing unit is proposed which is able to search routes satisfying the requirements of QoS that are expected to be satisfied in sequence.
In the above described conventional system, however, the following problems (1) and (2) are cited.
That is to say problem (1): the conventional system is a method for reserving in advance fixed transmission bands (for example, a band of 20 Mbps) at the time of transmission resource reservation. Namely, for example, at the time a transmission band of 20 Mbps is reserved, even in the case that it is understood in advance that a used band of 10 Mbps is going to decrease after a certain period of time, transmission by the band of 20 Mbps which has been used so far is stopped once and transmission is carried out by newly reserving a band of 10 Mbps after said certain period of time.
This is because there is no method for reflecting the usage plan or the usage record of the network resources by other users, and even in the case where there are scheduled to be, or tend to be, extra network resources those extra network resources will not be used, therefore, efficiency of the usage of the whole of the network resources cannot be expected to improve.
Problem (2): in the case that a plurality of transmission resources are selectable at the time of transmission resource reservation, it used to be difficult to improve the usage effectiveness of the transmission route while controlling the setting of the communication price because there was no such thing as a reference based on the idea that the communication price is adjusted among resources where the reservation of the transmission resources are available. When searching a route, even if the load of the terminal carrying out relay processing of data is high, a large amount of time is spent for data relay processing in the case that a relay terminal with a high load is selected as a search object because there is a possibility it may be selected as an object of a search of data relay processing.
On the other hand, a system for controlling traffic amount by performing packet drop according to the load of the network following the priority attached to the Internet protocol packet has been proposed conventionally (IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC2597, RFC2598).
In this conventional system, however, said priority is determined by judging whether the contents are important or not based on the type of streams such as image signals or speech signals, or control signals (Microsoft Inc.: ASF; Advanced Streaming Format).
Accordingly, in the conventional system, there""s a problem (3) that the processing lacks flexibility because only the types of streams are focused on.
For example, a method for making the importance level to the terminals, to the types of image or speech frames (I, P, B) or to set unit of those frames in a certain range (for example GOB: Group Of Block in MPEG1) correspond to the Internet protocol packets is not set therefore there is a problem (3) that more important information cannot be selected flexibly to be transmitted by giving a higher priority to each terminal important image frame or speech part.
It is the purpose of the present invention as listed one to thirteen that considering such problems (1) and (2) with the above mentioned conventional unit, a data relay processing method, a data relay processing unit, and program recording medium are provided so as to be able to further increase the usage efficiency of resources in the whole network compared to conventional ways.
For that purpose, one aspect of the present invention is a data relay processing method wherein, in the case that at least one piece of information is sent from respective terminals, among a piece of information on schedule of usage of transmission band, another piece of information on schedule of transmission band which is able to be assigned, another piece of information on schedule of a term where an transmission band is able to be assigned or exchanged, and another piece information on a necessary cost when a transmission band is assigned or exchanged, the sent information is held, and
wherein said respective schedules of said respective terminals are received, based on at least said information from another terminal which is previously held, said transmission band is reserved, assigned or exchanged or said communication price is determined.
Another aspect of the present invention is a data relay processing method wherein, based on history information of the past processing record with respect to processes of assigning or exchanging of the transmission band between respective terminals and based on information with respect to said transmission band, said transmission band is reserved, assigned or exchanged or a communication price is determined.
Still another aspect of the present invention is a data relay processing method, wherein said history information is announced in said respective terminals, and intervals between the announcements are adjustable.
Yet another aspect of the present invention is a data relay processing method, wherein said history information is renewed at predetermined time intervals or in accordance with whether said assigning or exchanging are possible or not.
Still yet another aspect of the present invention (corresponding to claim 5) is a data relay processing method wherein, in the case that there exists a transmission band utilized by reserving a transmission band, and a transmission band utilized without reserving a transmission band, information on usage frequency of the transmission band utilized by reserving said transmission band is defined by dependence information, and based on the dependence information and information with respect to said transmission band is reserved, assigned or exchanged or a communication price is determined.
A further aspect of the present invention is a data relay processing method characterized in that, in the case that there exist a transmission band utilized by reserving the transmission band and a transmission band utilized without reserving the transmission band, information on usage frequency of said transmission band utilized by reserving the transmission band is defined as a dependence information, intervals of announcements of said dependence information is controlled said transmission band is reserved assigned or exchanged or communication price is determined.
A still further aspect of the present invention is a data relay processing method wherein said dependence information is renewed at predetermined intervals.
A yet further aspect of the present invention is a data relay processing method wherein in the case that there exist more than two transmission resources respective that make either one of the processes of reserving, assigning or exchanging transmission bands possible, by utilizing information on goodness of fit exhibiting a possibility of being selected at least for each of said transmission resources that is able to be processed and information on deadline time of said selection, said transformation resources are selected or a communication price is adjusted.
A still yet another aspect of the present invention is a data relay processing method for controlling announcement intervals of route information for relaying data based on at least one piece of information among loads of terminals for carrying out data processing, a buffer capacity utilized for data processing, transmission quality, and available transmission band.
An additional aspect of the present invention is a data relay processing method for controlling announcement intervals of at least one piece of information, based on at least one piece of information among loads of terminals for carrying out data processing, a buffer capacity utilized for data processing, transmission quality, and available transmission band, among said loads of terminals for carrying out data processing, said buffer capacity utilized for data processing, said transmission quality, and said available transmission band.
A still additional aspect of the present invention is a data relay processing unit comprising: a transmission band management means wherein in the case that at least any one piece of information is sent from respective terminals, among a piece of information on schedule of usage of transmission band, another piece of information on schedule of transmission band which is able to be assigned, another piece of information on schedule of a term where an information band is able to be assigned or exchanged, and another piece information on a necessary cost when a transmission band is assigned or exchanged, said transmission band management means holding and managing the sent information; and
a transmission band reservation management means wherein in the case that said respective schedules of said respective terminals are received, based on at least said information from at least another terminal which is previously held by said transmission band management means, said transmission band reservation management means reserving, assigning or exchanging a transmission band or determining a communication price.
According to the above described configurations, transmission bands can be allocated or communication price can be determined corresponding, for example, to usage conditions of transmission quality or resources (transmission band) of the network.
A yet additional aspect of the present invention is a data relay unit comprising: packet classification rules for classifying packets, a packet classification means for classifying packets based on said packet classification rules, band reservation rules for managing rules for reserving transmission bands, and a band reservation means for reserving transmission bands based on said band reservation rules and the results of packet classification.
A still yet additional aspect of the present invention is a data relay unit comprising priority addition rules for managing rules for adding priority information, priority adding means for adding priority, priority processing rules for managing. rules of the processing method of priority and a priority processing means for carrying out priority processing based on added priority.
A supplementary aspect of the present invention is an information drop method comprising:
an input step for inputting contents in which at least a plurality of types of priorities which are used when the contents are processed are added;
a correspondence making step for dividing said contents into packets of the Internet protocol and making priorities of a plurality of types of said contents correspond to a priority field of packets of said Internet protocol;
a step for classifying said packets to, which said priority is made to correspond, into drop classes having at least two or more different drop probabilities based on said priority that is made to correspond; and
a drop step for dropping said packet in accordance with the network load based on said drop classes.
A still supplementary aspect of the present invention is an information drop unit comprising:
an input means for inputting contents in which at least a plurality of types of priorities are added when the contents are processed;
a priority corresponding management means making step for dividing said contents into packets of the Internet protocol and making priorities of a plurality of types of said contents correspond to a priority field of packets of said Internet protocol;
a classification means for classifying said packets to which said priority is made to correspond, into drop classes having at least two or more different drop probabilities based on said priority that is made to correspond; and
a drop means for dropping said packet in accordance with the network load based on said drop classes.
A yet supplementary aspect of the present invention is an information drop method comprising:
an input step for inputting contents in which at least a plurality of types of priorities are added when the contents are processed;
a correspondence making step for dividing said contents into packets of the Internet protocol and making priorities of a plurality of types of said contents correspond to a priority field of packets of said Internet protocol;
a first classification step for classifying said packets to which said priority is made to correspond, into first drop classes according to previously assigned rules;
a second classification step for classifying packets classified as such, into second drop classes having at least two or more different drop probabilities provided in said first drop class, based on said priority made to correspond; and
a drop step for dropping said packets in accordance with the network loads based on said first and second drop classes.
A still yet supplementary aspect of the present invention is an information drop unit comprising:
an input means for inputting contents in which at least a plurality of types of priorities are added when the contents are processed;
a priority corresponding management means for dividing said contents into packets of the Internet protocol and making priorities of a plurality of types of said contents correspond to a priority field of packets of said Internet protocol;
a first drop class management means for classifying said packets to which said priority is made to correspond, into first drop classes according to previously assigned rules;
a second drop class management means for classifying packets classified as such, into second drop classes having at least two or more different drop probabilities provided in said first drop class based on said priority made to correspond; and
a drop means for dropping said packets in accordance with the network loads based on said first and second drop classes.
The 18th invention of the present invention (corresponding to claim 30) is an information drop method characterized by comprising:
an input step for inputting contents in which at least a plurality of types of priorities are added when the contents are processed;
a correspondence making step for dividing said contents into packets of the Internet protocols, and for making a plurality of types of priorities of said contents correspond individually to a priority field of packets of said Internet protocol independently;
a first classification step for classifying said packets, to which said priority correspond is made correspond, into a first drop class based on one of said plurality of types of priorities being made to correspond;
a second classification step for classifying packets, which has been classified in such a way, into a second drop class having at least two or more different drop probabilities provided in said first drop class based on other priorities than said plurality of types of priorities which have been made to correspond;
a drop step for dropping said packets according to the network loads based on said first and second drop classes.
Another aspect of the present invention is an information drop unit characterized by comprising:
an input means for inputting contents in which at least a plurality of types of priorities are added when the contents are processed;
a priority corresponding management means making step for dividing said contents into packets of the Internet protocols, and for making a plurality of types of priorities of said contents correspond individually to a priority field of packets of said Internet protocol independently;
a first drop class management means for classifying said packets, to which said priority correspond is made correspond, into a first drop class based on one of said plurality of types of priorities being made to correspond;
a second drop class management step for classifying packets, which has been classified in such a way, into a second drop class having at least two or more different drop probabilities provided in said first drop class based on other priorities than said plurality of types of priorities which have been made to correspond;
a drop means for dropping said packets according to the network loads based on said first and second drop classes.